His mother, Joyce Abell, and stepfather, Richard Abell, were schoolteachers in Montgomery County, Maryland and organic vegetable farmers in Rappahannock County, Virginia. Richard Abell was a conscientious objector during World War 2. Sartwell's first wife was artist Rachael K. Pats, with whom he has two children, Emma and Samuel Sartwell. His second wife was author Marion Winik. He lives in rural Pennsylvania.

Sartwell's syndicated column, distributed by Creators Syndicate, appeared in numerous newspapers through the 1990s and 2000s, including The Philadelphia Inquirer and Los Angeles Times. Among the most idiosyncratic newspaper columnists of the period, he is a self-described adherent of anarchism. He is the author of such books as Obscenity, Anarchy, Reality and Six Names of Beauty. In 2008 SUNY Press published his book Against the State: An Introduction to Anarchist Political Theory, which is an "irreverent and incisive critique of liberal theories of the state."[3]